Istanbul's closed neighbourhoods reopened in June. Nobody has put that in writing.

What the restriction is

Since 2022, Turkey has capped the proportion of foreign residents in a given neighbourhood. Where foreign population crossed the threshold, that neighbourhood was closed to new foreign address registration and to new residence permit applications. The mechanism is called kapalı mahalle — closed neighbourhood.

The consequence for a buyer is specific and severe:

• You can own a property in a closed neighbourhood. Your title deed is valid, your ownership is absolute, you can let it and sell it.

• What you cannot do is register your address there — which means no residence permit on that property, and no utilities in your name.

At its peak the policy covered 1,169 neighbourhoods across more than 60 provinces. In Istanbul, ten districts were closed in full: Avcılar, Bağcılar, Bahçelievler, Başakşehir, Esenler, Esenyurt, Fatih, Küçükçekmece, Sultangazi and Zeytinburnu. Individual neighbourhoods inside Beşiktaş, Şişli, Sarıyer and Beyoğlu were closed too — including addresses in districts nobody thinks of as saturated.

What is being reported now

From around 10 June 2026, a number of Turkish immigration consultancies and property firms began reporting that the restriction in Istanbul had been lifted entirely. Not eased, not partially reviewed — lifted, city-wide, for all application types including residence permits based on property ownership.

We have no reason to doubt that something changed. Applications that would have been refused a year ago appear to be going through. Agencies dealing with the migration offices daily are reporting the same thing independently.

What has not happened

No instrument has been published.

No announcement from the Migration Administration. There is nothing on the Presidency of Migration Management's website. The most recent published notice on this subject is still the one from 30 June 2022 that closed the neighbourhoods in the first place — it remains live, with the list of closed neighbourhoods still attached for download.

No legal basis. There is no Official Gazette publication, no numbered Presidential Decision, no ministry circular, and no amendment to the Foreigners and International Protection Law.

No national media coverage. Turkish national media did not report a reopening. This matters more than it sounds. When the restrictions were imposed in 2022, the Interior Minister announced it and the national press covered it. When a rumour circulated in 2023 that 39 Istanbul districts had been closed, the Migration Administration published a correction. The institution communicates when this policy changes. It has not communicated here.

The most candid Turkish sources say the same thing: there is no comprehensive official announcement that the practice has been lifted; what exists is information from the units processing applications, and the observation that the restrictions are not being applied in practice. Meanwhile the policy is still being applied elsewhere. In Alanya, where local authorities began preparing to lift restrictions in June 2026, local reporting was explicit that the written decision from Ankara had not been issued. And several Turkish legal guides updated for 2026 still describe neighbourhood closure as one of the decisive grounds on which a first-time residence application is refused.

Why the distinction matters to you

A rule that has been repealed and a practice that has stopped are not the same thing, and only one of them survives contact with a bad week.

An unpublished administrative practice can change without notice, without announcement, and without anyone being at fault. There is no instrument to point to, which means there is nothing to rely on and nothing to appeal against. If the practice tightens again between the day you buy and the day you apply, you own an apartment you cannot register an address at — and the money is already spent.

The timing risk is real, because status is tested when you apply, not when you buy. A deed transfer completes in a day. A residence application follows weeks or months later, after the appointment, after the paperwork. That gap is where the exposure lives.

None of which means avoid Istanbul, or avoid the districts in question. It means do not treat "the neighbourhoods are open now" as a fact you can build a purchase on, when the people saying it cannot show you the document.

What to do before you buy

Confirm the specific neighbourhood, not the district. Closure operated at neighbourhood level. Two addresses a few streets apart could have different status. Ask about the exact address on the deed.

Ask the provincial migration directorate directly. This is the only authoritative check. Not your agent, not a website list, not a PDF from 2022. Ask the İl Göç İdaresi Müdürlüğü whether that address is currently open to new foreign residence registration.

Get the answer as close to your application as you can. An answer from three months ago tells you about three months ago. If there is a gap between purchase and application, check again before you apply.

Ignore the published lists. The official list attached to the 2022 announcement has not been updated. The lists circulating on agency websites contradict each other — some still show ten Istanbul districts closed while sister sites announce the city fully open. Neither is a source you can act on.

Do not let it be the reason you buy. If a property only makes sense because a restriction has supposedly been lifted, the restriction is doing work the asset should be doing on its own.

The rest of the requirements have not changed

Whatever happens with neighbourhood status, the other conditions for a residence permit through property are unaffected:

The USD 200,000 threshold. Nationwide since 16 October 2023 — no distinction between metropolitan and other provinces. For property acquired after that date, the figure recorded on the title deed governs, converted at the Central Bank selling rate on the day of registration. The SPK valuation report is a land-registry requirement for the transfer itself; it is not what the immigration threshold is tested against on this route.

Residential status. The property must carry residential status (konut) on the deed and be used as a residence. Land, shops and offices do not qualify at any price.

Not the citizenship route. That is a separate track at USD 400,000 with its own rules — including a valuation report that does govern.

Where we stand

PERGAS is a property firm. We are not an immigration consultancy and we are not a law firm, and residence applications for our clients are filed by licensed Turkish immigration lawyers who are engaged separately and visibly.

What we will not do is repeat a claim we cannot source. The reopening may well be real and may well be formalised in due course. Today it is an administrative practice with no published basis, and you are entitled to know that before you commit two hundred thousand dollars to an address.

If the Migration Administration publishes an instrument, we will update this article and say so. Until then, this is what the record shows.